


Teething Pains

by Raindropsonwhiskers



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Dr Nyarlathotep, Eldritch Doctor (Doctor Who), Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Mind Control, Memory Loss, Starvation, This is not Happy, Unethical Experimentation, almost forgot those, oh and, tecteun's a+ parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-05 18:54:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25720174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raindropsonwhiskers/pseuds/Raindropsonwhiskers
Summary: Tecteun tries to starve the Timeless Child to death. It doesn't work.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 58





	Teething Pains

**Author's Note:**

> I found this in my phone's Notes with no memory of actually writing it, which feels thematically appropriate. So, I decided to dump it here! Enjoy

It was meant to be an experiment, that was all. To see how long it took the child to starve to death, and how that affected their eventual regeneration. Tecteun went into their room every day to monitor their progress, take a blood sample for analysis, and ask them a series of questions. As was standard.

The problems started with memory loss. Or, no. That's not quite accurate. It wasn't memories that were taken, but emotions. When Tecteun left the child's room one day, her nagging worry about the upcoming funding cuts was gone. She was still concerned about it intellectually, but the feeling itself was missing, leaving her strangely calm.

Tecteun brushed it off as a side effect of stress, though she knew that made no sense, and continued the experiment. The next day, it was the annoyance at one of her lab techs for breaking some equipment that was taken.

The child's eyes started looking brighter, their teeth sharper. Previously, they'd been growing lethargic and slow, but now they had more energy than they'd had in weeks. Tecteun knew she was nervous about the sudden change, but even that was gone from her mind.

After a few weeks of this, she was paranoid beyond belief, though she couldn't actually feel the panic. The gap in her mind where she knew the skittering fear should be was nearly as bad as the fear itself.

Meanwhile, the child was doing better than ever. Their eyes tracked her movement when she came in to check on them, though her fingers shook so badly she couldn't write properly. She knew she should send in a lab tech to take the notes, but she couldn't. Something kept drawing her in, leading her to that room day after day even as her thoughts left her mind more often than they came.

Finally, Tecteun decided to put an end to the starvation. Clearly, the child was finding some other food source, and though she couldn't prove the connection to her failing memory, she didn't think she could stand it much longer.

It didn't work.

Oh, sure, the child ate and seemed to enjoy the food, but... they still watched her with those dark, hungry eyes when she felt herself drawn to their room for observations. Her thoughts still went missing, leaving behind silhouettes of feelings that left her grasping at shadows. There was still an energy about the child that wasn't there before the starvation experiment.

Tecteun wasn't sure how much longer it would take to uncover the secret of regeneration, but she hoped it wasn't too long. She wasn't sure how much more of this she could take. She wasn't sure of a lot of things, these days.


End file.
